KARL LAGERFELD

“The artist’s material is life itself. (…) The body, clothing, furniture, home and street are the most immediate objects of art.” (Karl Ernst Osthaus)

For Karl Ernst Osthaus, the founder of Museum Folkwang, “art in trade and commerce” was no less important than that of free artists. Reason enough for Museum Folkwang to devote a major exhibition to the world’s most successful and influential German designer of recent decades.

For over 50 years, Karl Lagerfeld has enjoyed great success as a fashion designer. As Creative Director for CHANEL (since 1981) and FENDI (since 1965) he has become one of the most important players in the international fashion world, but has also gained fame as an astute and sharp-tongued aphorist of the everyday. During this period, Lagerfeld has also worked for other fashion houses and launched sensational collections under his own name. Since 1975, alongside fashion, he has been designing jewellery, furniture, musical instruments, books and toys and, in cooperation with musicians, directors and architects, opera and theatre costumes, stage sets and architecture.

Today, Karl Lagerfeld is equally known internationally as a fashion designer, draftsman and photographer, as well as a designer of books, decorations and interior fittings.

This exhibition on Karl Lagerfeld will be more of a snapshot than a retrospective, showing the man’s seemingly boundless creative energy in all its facets: fashion, drawings and photographs, films and books, product design, advertising. The exhibition will be conceived in collaboration with Lagerfeld himself and curated by Gerhard Steidl and Eric Pfrunder. It will, for the first time, provide a panorama of Lagerfeld’s creative cosmos – in keeping with Lagerfeld’s own credo:

“I am fortunate to be able to do in life what interests me most: photography, fashion and books.”
(Karl Lagerfeld)

Supported by

You can order e-tickets here